Thursday, August 11, 2011

Book Challenge 18.

Day 01 – The best book you read this yearDay 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 timesDay 03 – Your favorite seriesDay 04 – Favorite book of your favorite seriesDay 05 – A book that makes you happyDay 06 – A book that makes you sadDay 07 – Most underrated bookDay 08 – Most overrated bookDay 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up lovingDay 10 – Favorite classic bookDay 11 – A book you hatedDay 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymoreDay 13 – Your favorite writerDay 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writerDay 15 – Favorite male characterDay 16 – Favorite female characterDay 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite bookDay 18 – A book that disappointed you

Day 18.

No no no!

Being disappointed by a book. This is rare - being repulsed or overwhelmed or alienated or elated or inspired or surprised is the usual action. I don't read for a standard reason by which a book could fail me. Rarely does prose/verse disappoint - even if I thought it'd be revelatory and it's rotten, there's something I can learn in that, or I can turn out of my failed expectations what I thought I was in for, and I've generated some of my own favorite work that way. Disappointed still is not the word but my reaction to Janet Reitman's Inside Scientology was disappointing to me - finishing it, I realized how I was expecting to delight in something lurid that would make me befuddled and appalled as if it were a checkout rag. I cried instead, a lot, and it made me feel physically bad to read the book, to reckon with the subject and the people. I was like this watching Hot Coffee, too. So reading Inside Scientology made me disappointed with myself. And a few other people.

Next month I'm going to interview some students and administrators at the local ballet school, which I've been excited to do for some time and was going to do next week, but next month is so much better. My contact, their lovely marketing director, observed that many people would be jealous for the capacity in which I am so busy right now. Right now is outrageously liminal. I cannot abide a liminal state without suffering. Amidst this, so much time and energy was consumed in the reading of Inside Scientology that its impact on my life was pretty embarrassing.